Peter Siddle, the Australian paceman, has fired barbs at South Africa ahead of the opening Test at the WACA starting on November 3.

South Africa arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday (October 18) to start their tour and stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis said South Africa had inflicted some mental scars on Australia during a recent One-Day International series whitewash.

However, Siddle rebuffed du Plessis's comments and fired back with his own stinging barbs. "That's what I sort of giggled at ... it's a totally different side. They played an inexperienced (Australian) side over there in that one-day series," Siddle said on Tuesday. "They're good comments but it puts more pressure on them ... talking a big game puts more pressure on them."

The 31-year-old queried AB de Villiers's recent account of Australia's "abuse" in a Test series between the countries in 2014. "No (it wasn't any more heated than any other series) ... he must never have been sledged before if that's the case," Siddle said. "We were pretty tame, I think, compared to probably past eras and past teams. He must have had some pretty quiet games in his career."

There has been much hype over explosive young South African paceman Kagiso Rabada, who bowls at 150kmph and is expected to be Dale Steyn's successor. But Siddle said the 21-year-old could face a baptism of fire in Australia.

"It'll be interesting to see how he goes over here in a big series. There will be a fair bit of pressure on him," Siddle said. "In the past, other countries have brought out players like that -- you sort of think of Steve Finn a few Ashes series ago when they brought him out.

"He might have taken a few wickets but he did leak a lot of runs. There was a lot of pressure on him," he added. "That's the sort of thing that we could look to do to Rabada. It means the other bowlers have to come back and keep bowling spells."

After being sidelined for six months due to a back injury, Siddle is facing a race against time to be fit for the first Test but is set to play a Sheffield Shield match for Victoria starting on October 25.

Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird are set to form Australia's attack for the summer's opening Test in Perth.